A Mistake in History
by Alaqua Slaughter
Summary: Years fly by, especially if you're frozen and you wake to find yourself in a place not quite home. Secret ninja, researchers, corrupt government, and an experiment worth it's weight in confidential reports. The only thing missing is the happy ending.
1. Awake

**1/06/07**

Awake

_Naruto Uzumaki: Konoha Research Facility: 2156_

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki awoke with a groan, feeling sick and with a throbbing pain in his head.

He slowly sat up, looking around with startled blue eyes. He frowned, not recognizing the place he was in.

It was dark, cold and sterile in the room. There wasn't any light on but he could see well enough. He was lying on a cold, metal table, a small tray of tools next to it. There was only one door to the right and a wide mirror on the opposite wall. He could hear dripping to his right and as he squinted he saw that it was just a leaking tube.

Naruto blinked. What the hell?

He jumped off the metal table and ran to the tube, examining it carefully. The tube went into the wall, so he couldn't look at it thoroughly, but he got the feeling that it had a very basic use.

"Awake, I see."

Naruto spun around and stared at the man who had come in. He was tall, with silver hair, though he didn't look that old and bored, dark eyes. He was wearing a lab coat and a dark blue jumpsuit underneath it, a mask covered the bottom half of his face and a headband covered his left eye.

"Who the hell are you? Where the hell am I?" Naruto asked, backing away as the man came closer. He blinked as he suddenly realized something."And where the hell is the bathroom?"

* * *

"I'm Kakashi Hatake and you're in Konoha Research Facility. It's the year 2156." the man told him after he'd taken care of his business. 

Naruto spit out the water he'd been drinking, staring at the man in shock. "_What?_ But how?"

"You were frozen, at your own consent, I believe." Kakashi said, suddenly looking serious. "You did give consent, didn't you?"

Naruto thought for a moment. No wonder that tube had been leaking! It was some sort of sink. The bathroom hadn't seemed all that high-tech but now that he thought about. The toilet flushed on it's own, like normal, but the sink had turned on by itself and had a comfortable flow and temperature. And it had also come out a tube filled with holes.

"Yeah, now that I think about it. I wasn't eighteen, but they took me anyway. Probably because of Kyuubi." he said carefully.

"Kyuubi?" Kakashi asked, frowning.

"Nothing." Naruto said quickly. No need for some scientist to know about Kyuubi if he didn't already know, he'd either think he was insane or lying, anyway.

"Kyuubi..." Kakashi muttered, pressing buttons on some sort of small screen that looked akin to a palm pilot. "There's nothing in the files that say anything about a 'Kyuubi'."

Naruto nodded, knowing it wouldn't have been recorded. The Hokage had wanted to keep it quiet as best as he could. Naruto thanked him for that. Life was bad enough with the adults knowing, no need for the children to start hating him even more for it.

"_Anywhere_," Kakashi continued, frowning at his palm pilot thing, "_nothing_, not in the language database or anything. There's not one word that even sounds like Kyuubi."

"Language database?" Naruto asked blankly, twirling his fork around some noodles that Kakashi had insisted he eat. At least future food wasn't much different from the food of the past.

"Where all of the languages have been recorded. Most of them anyway, some died out long before this was invented."

"Like Latin?" Naruto asked, knowing that only scientists used it. Well, in his time, anyway.

"Latin?" Kakashi asked, his brow furrowed, "what's that?"

Naruto blinked and stared at the man for a moment before laughing. "You don't know what Latin is!" he exclaimed with delight. And he was supposed to be some future scientist!

"What is Latin?" Kakashi asked, looking at his palm pilot again.

"Some language. I never bothered to learn much. It was a dead language in my time, only scientists used it." Naruto thought for a moment, "The universal science language. They all understood it to some degree so they could communicate, because they all spoke different languages sometimes."

"Hm." Kakashi was studying Naruto with interest and he couldn't help but feel as if he were being examined. "You hold a wealthy amount of information. We could learn a lot from you."

Naruto once again stared at the man. A wealth of information? _Him?_ He burst into another fit of laughter.

"Good one, Kakashi-sensei!" he managed to get out. If his schoolmates had heard that, they'd be laughing their heads off at the man. Honestly, even Naruto himself knew he wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the ceiling. _And now that I'm in the future I bet my stupidity can't be matched,_ he thought with a snigger.

"'Sensei'?" Kakashi asked, once again looking bewildered.

"Teacher. How Japanese students address their teachers." Naruto explained.

"Do you know... English?" Kakashi asked, glancing at his palm pilot for confirmation.

"Enough of it." Naruto answered, taking a bite of the noodles. He made a face. _This would be so much better if it were ramen_.

Kakashi looked relieved. "It's the universal language now. No one speaks anything else. The races are also one, though traces of an individual one still make themselves known, we are all considered part of a single race."

Naruto made a face. "So, that did happen? Must have done wonders for world-peace."

Kakashi just nodded, but Naruto could tell he was lost.

"There used to be a lot of wars because of differences." he said, not bothering to elaborate.

"Oh, yes. I've heard about 'wars'." Kakashi said. "There hasn't been one for about a hundred years."

"That's, uhm, good." Naruto said, not knowing what to say to that. He took another bite, before looking at Kakashi again. "Do you know anything about what happened to the ninja's and such?"

"Ours tried to overthrow the Hokage. They succeeded and other villages got wind of it. Fearing the same thing would happen to their own governments, they banished ninja's. They took revenge by killing the Hokage and most of our ninja's. It turned into a bloody war between them and in the end, no one won. Some people believe they're still around. I think it happened a few years after you were frozen."

Naruto almost choked on his food at this information. _None of the leaf village's shinobi would do that! There's gotta be a mistake in history somewhere!_

"And if some still are around?" Naruto asked uneasily.

"The laws still stand and will probably still be enforced. Any ninja will be banished or killed if they refuse to leave. They're a danger to our society, apparantly."

Naruto thought for a moment. _Well, no way I'm telling them what I am. _

"Hey, why did you wake me up?" He'd been wanting to ask that since he realized what year it was, but hadn't had the chance until now.

"We thought it was the right time. We wanted to see if we could successfully wake a person from being frozen. And now that you are awake, with nothing wrong as far as I can tell, we'll have to keep you under close observation for some time." Kakashi answered. "We know it's not right to keep a person against their will, but we have to make sure you're alright and that this can be done to other people."

Naruto felt annoyed at his words. _Lock me up here, huh? Well, I'll get out, one way or another_.

"Speaking of which, I have to show you to your room." Kakashi got up from the stool he was sitting on, waiting patiently for Naruto.

Sighing, Naruto dropped his fork and stood, following Kakashi out of the small cafeteria.

* * *

"This is your room." Kakashi said, throwing open a steel door with a small window. 

"Room? This looks like solitary confinement! Or a mental room!" Naruto exclaimed. They honestly wanted him to live here?

"It won't be that bad once you get used to it." Kakashi said, stepping into the room and looking around the small space. There was a bed two feet off the floor with a blanket and pillow. A door was in the back, leading to a small bathroom with a shower, toilet, sink, and medicine cabinet.

_And, of course, it's all in white,_ Naruto thought with disgust. He wandered back into the hallway, looking around without interest. The hall was just as drab as the room. The walls were a blueish green and very long, Naruto's door the only one besides two others at the end of the hall. Though he wasn't sure, he felt that they were empty.

"I'll be back in the morning, to start evaluation of your mental and physical state. There'll be some tests and you'll meet a few others." Kakashi said, gently pushing Naruto into the room. "Good-night." with that, he shut the door and Naruto could hear the turning of some sort of lock. With the huge groan that accompanied it, he guessed it was big.

"Great," he mumbled, flopping onto the bed, "I get frozen and end up in the future." he sighed and threw his arm over his eyes. The fact that he was a _wealth of information_ spoke volumes about his situation. Nobody knew him here. There was no one he could talk to, no one he could say _he_ knew.

He was alone again.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and let himself drift to sleep.

At least the bed was comfortable.

* * *

_this is just an idea that popped into my head and is the only story where i'm actually a few chapters ahead of myself. i don't know if it's good, bad, in the middle or what. but hell, i hope you enjoyed the first chap!_

_-Slaughter_

Next Update: **01/08/07**


	2. The People Involved

**1/08/07**

The People Involved

_Itachi Uchiha : Uchiha Residence: Konoha Research Facility: 2156_

* * *

Itachi Uchiha sighed at the sight that greeted him early Monday morning. 

His brother had been through here, he could tell. The kitchen was clean, as if no one had ever stepped foot in it. It was practically gleaming.

"Sasuke, Sasuke," Itachi clicked his tongue with mild annoyance. His younger brother was generally a good person, but he had a habit of cleaning when he was in a mood. Itachi didn't know why he did it, a maid or a bot could easily have done it, but that was just the way Sasuke was. Besides, it wasn't as if cleaning was bad. It kept Sasuke mildly humble. Almost.

Shaking his head, Itachi pulled a bowl from a cabinet and pressed a button, porridge coming out of a tube into it. When it was done, he sat down at the small island in the kitchen, making sure not to drop anything on the black counter. Sasuke would be angry if he dirtied it up this fast.

As he ate, he couldn't help but wonder what had made Saske angry this time. Granted, his brother always seemed to be in a mood, but in reality, it was rather hard to get him to be so much as upset.

_Well, well, well, here he is now,_ Itachi thought, watching as Sasuke came into the kitchen. He looked as if he'd spent hours in the shower. His hair was shiny and his own skin was practically glowing.

"Good morning," Itachi said.

Sasuke just nodded once and poured a bowl of porridge, sitting across from Itachi, eating silently.

"I got a call this morning," Sasuke glanced up, but didn't comment, "they didn't elaborate, but I'm probably going to be home late this evening."

Sasuke nodded and kept eating.

Sighing, Itachi got off of the stool he was sitting on and placed his bowl in the sink. He ruffled his brother's hair, earning a small grunt, and walked into the living room, pulling on his shoes and grabbing a small bag. With a last glance around the room, he walked out into the false daylight.

He frowned at how bright the day was as he walked. _Must be a problem in the screens,_ he thought. Though he didn't mind the controlled weather, some part of him longed for the natural sun and rain. He guessed it was the old part of him. Some part of his humanity that remembered what real sunlight was and longed to feel it. In all, Itachi'd never felt real sunlight or rain, hell, no one in Konoha had ever felt any natural weather for at least a hundred years.

He stopped at a corner and pressed a button, waiting patiently for the car to come. When it did, he climbed in and typed in a location, sitting back and waiting for the car to take him to his destination.

Staring out the window, Itachi took note of all the tall buildings. Most were silver and were built to reflect the sky. Others were blue and built to repel the light. There weren't many people walking the streets, preferring to take their own ride. Traffic was never heavy and at night the streets were deserted, thieves were a thing of the past but one did pop up every now and then.

As the car came to a stop Itachi put his money in a slot on the back of the seat, getting out and heading up the steps to the large building. "Konoha Research" was above the doors in large letters, announcing to the world the best scientific facility ever built. The greatest inventions were built in there and only the greatest minds were allowed in.

Itachi didn't really care.

He stepped into the building, the usual scientists walking around, looking down at their databases, most of them muttering to themselves. The secretary sat at the front desk, rearranging dates in her computer as people called to schedule or cancel.

"Itachi."

Itachi turned around and saw Kakashi Hatake behind him, looking unusually stern. He thought about all the things the older man might be upset with him about but didn't find anything. So he just nodded and waited for the other to say something.

"I need you in TR: A in five minutes." was all he said before walking to an elevator, shooting him another serious look as the doors closed.

Itachi raised an eyebrow and went to check in with the secretary. 'A' was an elite room, only the best minds and secret projects of the secret projects went into those rooms. No one was even allowed to pass by on the elevator without permission.

"Any rumor about Test Room A?" he asked the secretary as she checked his ID.

"Oh, lots of rumors," the woman said mysteriously, handing it back after she had swiped it through the screen.

"Mind telling me?"

"Well," the woman purred, obviously delighted to help spread some gossip, "word has it that there was a secret meeting last night. Only two people but they did something _very_ naughty. Against policy. No one knows who it was or what they did, but they're going to be punished for it _severely_. Word is, Orochimaru suspects someone of well, doing a grade A project without notifying him. One that's a threat to him."

_Great_, Itachi thought, walking towards the elevators, _now I'm going to be fired for working with Kakashi._

Kakashi wasn't really a bad person, Itachi knew, he just had a tendancy to do things his own way. He usually meant well and normally wouldn't drag other people into something if he knew it was risky. Apparantly, he either thought his project wasn't that great or he needed help badly. Itachi guessed it was the latter, as Kakashi had gone to him and not to Genma or someone else. The two only ever worked together if they both needed a sharp mind and no distractions.

As he stepped out of the elevators into the sixteenth floor corridor he was immediately assaulted by a rather loud voice shouting curses and threats. Kakashi's voice cut through, not as loud as the first but still raised.

Frowning, Itachi opened the door to TR: A:, where the noise was coming from and raised his eyebrows at the scene.

Some blonde was standing on an examination table, wielding a chair, in only a pair of simple black boxers. Kakashi was holding a syringe, obviously trying to get the kid to come down.

"You're not putting me to sleep!" the blonde yelled, swinging the chair.

"We have to. It won't hurt, Naruto, just come down." Kakashi tried to catch the chair as it was thrown, but was too slow, it crashed into him and he fell.

"No way in hell!" the boy, Naruto, yelled, jumping off the table making a run for the door. It was then he spotted Itachi, but before he could stop he crashed into the taller boy, sending them both to the ground.

Kakashi had recovered by then and took the opportunity to stick Naruto in the arm, injecting the syringe before he could get away. Naruto almost immediately fell asleep and slumped on Itachi, who sighed at his unfortunate timing.

"Sorry, Uchiha," Kakashi said as he lifted Naruto up and placed him gently on the examining table, "but he seems to have a fear of going to sleep through the use of injections."

"That or he's afraid of needles," Itachi said, standing and brushing invisible dust from his coat and suit, "so, is this the big secret that was going to get you into trouble?"

Kakashi nodded. "I woke him last night. On my own."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question.

"It was the only thing I could think of. The Hokage is corrupted as well as other powerful figures. Using a past means of defeating them seemed like a good idea but now I'm not so sure..."

They both looked at the slumbering boy, who seemed troubled by something even in his sleep. His brows were furrowed and his hand twitched every other second.

"Is he one of the ones who were frozen?" Itachi asked, going to the tray of examination tools.

"Yeah."

Itachi shook his head. "That was dangerous, Kakashi, you could have killed him."

The masked man shrugged. "He was frozen for over a hundred years. I don't think he'd care too much."

Itachi didn't answer, but instead began to examine the blonde boy, wondering what the hell Kakashi had gotten him in to. He wasn't sure how having this Naruto kid would help them in any way, but Kakashi didn't do things without a reason, so he figured the other would tell him sooner or later (most likely later). There was only one thing he knew for sure at the moment; if Orochimaru got wind of this they were both going to lose their jobs.

* * *

_thanks for reading! and before i forget..._

_Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_. It's been copyrighted by Masashi Kishimoto._

_note: thank you to _Kasek_ for ponting out the English speaking/Japanese name. If you hadn't mentioned it I would never have thought of that! _

Next Update: **1/13/07**


	3. The Forgotten

**1/12/07**

The Forgotten

_Naruto Uzumaki : Konoha Research Facility_

* * *

_Naruto fell face forward into the dirt, grunting as he made impact. He heard laughter and sat up, spinning around angrily._

"_Sakura-chan!" he yelled._

"_I'm sorry!" the pink haired girl continued to laugh, as she had been the one to knock him into the dirt in the first place. _

"_What the hell has Tsunade been teaching you?" Naruto grumbled, getting to his feet and making a futile attempt at brushing the dirt off of his clothes._

"_The usual," Sakura answered vaguely, walking forward and smiling as she watched him give up trying to get clean. "Wanna go again?"_

"_Damn right!"_

"_Hey, you two, quit playing around_,_" Neji came upon the scene in the clearing of the forest, his hands in his pockets, looking amused, "Hokage-sama wants to see us about a mission."_

"_Yes! Finally!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air and took off running. "I'll race you to the tower!"_

"_No fair! You're cheating!" Sakura shouted, but even so, she also took off, laughing as she passed Neji. "Come on, Hyuuga, you're gonna lose!"_

* * *

"Rise and shine."

Naruto blinked and let out an involuntary moan as he felt pain shoot up his right arm. He sat up, clutching it, waiting for the pain to pass. He'd forgotten about that little injury. Glancing at it, he felt confusion swarm in his mind. Even if he'd forgotten, shouldn't it have healed by now? It _had_ been over a hundred years since he'd gotten it, right?

"Phantom pain," said a quiet voice to his right.

Naruto stared at the tall youth standing beside the table he was on. His hair was long and dark, pulled into a low ponytail and his eyes were bored looking, like Kakashi's, but held immense intellect. He was wearing a lab coat with a simple black suit under it, as if he'd come from a funeral. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than Naruto, but definitely younger than Kakashi.

"It tends to happen after being injected with the sedative that Kakashi used." the man went on to explain, "it's not real, just your body remembering an injury." he glanced at Naruto and frowned. "From the way you were moaning in your sleep, it must have been bad."

Naruto just nodded, not feeling comfortable talking about that particular injury.

"How did it happen?" the man asked, going back to putting some tools away.

"I was just being careless at the wrong moment," Naruto answered uneasily, looking away. He hadn't been conscience long enough to feel angry about his mistake when he'd received it, but now that he remembered it, he was furious with himself. _You don't lose focus in a fight, stupid,_ he berated.

He frowned as the other wrapped the tools up in a brown cloth, something picking at the edge of his consciousness. "You look familiar," he said, squinting at the taller boy.

The dark haired boy turned to him with narrowed eyes. "How is that? I've never met you before."

"I know, but I get the feeling I should know you," Naruto said, frowning and scratching the back of his head, "it's weird. I feel like I should be afraid of you. And angry."

The other merely frowned and stepped closer to Naruto, pulling out what looked like a silver stick. As he came closer, Naruto backed away, feeling intensely nervous.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just going to scan your brain for any defects."

"But you just got through examining me!" Naruto shouted, jumping off the table and backing away, so that there was a hefty amount of space between the two, eyeing the silver stick in the boy's hand.

"Physically. We didn't check your mental state yet." he said calmly. "You're feelings might just be a defect or the aura I give off, but it could also be paranoia or any number of other mental disorders. I just want to run a quick test to check your head." he took a step closer but didn't get any farther than that.

"Well, Naruto, you're perfectly fine," Kakashi said, coming in the door and breaking the tense mood, looking at his palm pilot thing, "How do you not end up with even a trace of an injury? Especially being a teenager in those days."

"I'm special," Naruto said, grinning, his nervous feeling melting away at the sight of the man.

Kakashi just shrugged and put his palm pilot away. "We have to take you back to your room now. Itachi will escort you."

Naruto sighed but pushed against the wall, going to the other end of the room and grabbing his clothes from the counter on the left wall. He turned and followed the quiet man, Itachi, to the elevators. He watched as the elder put the stick away. For some reason, his feelings of anger and fear didn't come back, almost as if he'd never felt them in the first place.

"Hey, what did you guys do to me?" Naruto asked, eyeing the other as they stood in the elevator.

"Just took a couple of tests. We didn't cut you open or anything, just used a few basic tools meant for children." Itachi answered, not bothering to open his eyes as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

Naruto frowned but looked back up at the changing numbers, which went faster than any elevator he'd ever been in. He didn't like the underlaying hint that suggested he wasn't tough enough to handle adult tools, but he was still glad they hadn't hurt him. No telling what they would have thought about his exceptional healing time.

"How long did it all take?"

"All day," was all he got from the other.

When the door opened, Naruto stepped out into the hallway, feeling slightly cold. _Must be underground,_ he thought as he noticed the lack of windows for the first time. Itachi opened the door to his room and raised his eyebrows slightly at it. Naruto just grinned and gestured around, walking in.

"You guys sure know how to make someone feel at home," he said, sitting heavily on his bed, "feel free to stay the night."

Itachi just shook his head. "We'll come in the morning for some more tests."

Naruto waved to show he understood and listened as Itachi closed the door and locked it. When he was sure the man was on the elevator, he pulled a picture from under his pillow. He'd found it in his pocket that morning before Kakashi had come for him.

Sakura was in the foreground, grinning with her arm around Naruto's shoulders, who was gesturing the victory sign and smiling widely. Their other teammate, who, for some reason, Naruto couldn't remember, was hunched over with Sakura's other arm around his shoulders. He looked like he couldn't have cared less, but Naruto could see the small smile on his face.

Sighing, Naruto put the picture back under his pillow, wondering who the hell that other guy could be. He dug around his memories and panicked when he realized that he didn't remember much before he'd woken the day previous. Vague faces swarmed in his mind but he couldn't put names to them and certain events were just on the edge of his memory. He tried to reach for them, desperately trying to remember something important. But the memories slipped away before he had a chance to hold onto any of them.

Frustrated, he thought back to before he woke up. There was his ninja status...but he didn't remember what he'd been before that... or what status _within_ the ninja status he'd been. Sakura Haruno was in his memory, her pretty face and pink hair more clear than anything else. Neji Hyuuga was also there, customary narrowed eyes and pale complexion glaring at Naruto even in his mind.

Red eyes also flashed across his mind's eye, along with a long coat with red clouds on it. _Itachi_, he thought, feeling it was him rather than knowing. The man in his memory gave off a different aura than the one he'd just met, one of power and hatred as opposed to intellect and indifference.

It took him a moment to realize he only remembered them because of the dream he'd been having after Kakashi had put him out. And because he'd just met Itachi, he wasn't sure he had him down correctly. It might have been just his imagination going wild.

Cursing, he ran a hand through his short-blonde hair and stood up, pacing his small room. Did he only forget because it'd been so long? Or was it because other events and people weren't as important as being a ninja and having friends like Sakura and Neji? Growling, he sat back down and pulled out the picture again, staring down the dark-haired boy, as if _he_ had all the answers.

"And I bet you do, don't you?" Naruto asked out loud, "you have everything I need but you're not gonna give it to me, are you?"

The boy in the picture didn't answer and Naruto doubted he ever would.

* * *

**Next Update:** Undetermined


	4. A Minor Setback

**2/25/07**

A Minor Setback

_Kakashi Hatake: Konoha Research Facility: 2156_

* * *

Kakashi's fists balled at his sides as he listened to his boss's little speech. He'd been receiving lectures for years, but never one this long or infuriating. He wanted nothing more than to strike that snake of a man right in his smug smile.

"...and, of course, you endangered a human life. Yours and the boys." Orochimaru went on, oblivious to Kakashi's murderous demeanor, "As of now, you are off the research team, for needlessly putting yourself and others at risk. And for not getting the permission you _did_ need."

Kakashi gave a sharp nod, already feeling his anger give way to horror. He knew what was coming next, and he didn't like it one bit.

"I, of course, will head the research team." Orochimaru's smug smile grew, and he gave Kakashi a fake look of sympathy. "I understand you have probably developed a personal attachment to Mr. Uzumaki in the day you had him, but I assure you, he is in good hands."

Kakashi felt himself pale and he never before appreciated his mask more than he did then. Orochimaru was famous for his research and reports, it was how he'd gotten to be head of Konoha Research in the first place.

He was also famous for putting an end to his subject's lives.

It didn't matter if they were human or not; Orochimaru was known to be cruel and heartless when it came to science and discovery. Nothing stood in that man's way, not even the Hokage would put an end to it; she was too in love with him. It was obvious she was only being used, but Kakashi had met her once and she seemed just the type to fall for candy and flowers.

Naruto would be dead by the end of the month.

"Kakashi, I know you meant well, but I'm afraid that kicking you off the team is going a little easy on you. So, you are suspended from researching _anything_ until further notice. Seem fair?"

He only nodded, plans of kidnaping Naruto already forming in his mind. That kid didn't know Orochimaru, what could, _would_ happen to him. That damn snake would gain his trust and then kill him when he got tired of playing scientist.

"You're dismissed." Orochimaru waved his hand and Kakashi turned on his heel, glad to be out the man's presence.

He immediately turned left, heading for the elevator. There was only the one in the giant building and Kakashi appreciated it now. Getting to Naruto would be easier now.

He waited impatiently as it lowered to B4, where Naruto was staying. There was another person staying there as well, but he'd never been told who. He didn't even know if the person was alive.

When it finally did _ding_ to a stop, Kakashi practically flew to the kid's door, bent on warning him at the very least.

"They found out about you," he blurted, throwing open the door and stepping inside, "someone found out and told our boss."

Naruto was sitting on the bed, obviously thinking about something hard. He looked up at Kakashi's rushed tone and blinked. "That's a bad thing?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, I didn't have permission to be in the labs where you were kept and now that they know, I'm suspended and they'll run dangerous tests on you. They'll never let you out of here."

"What?" Naruto shouted, jumping to his feet. "They can't do that!"

"Orochimaru can do whatever he wants. He's practically dating the Hokage, who'd do anything for him." Kakashi said with a hint of disgust. "I'm sorry for doing this to you, Naruto."

Naruto just slammed his fist into the wall, the _cement_ wall, creating a large crack in it. "They can't keep me here! That's worse than being hated by the villagers! It's not right! I won't be alone again!"

Kakashi gave the crack in the wall a startled look. "How did you do that?" he asked, ignoring Naruto's rant.

Naruto turned and blinked at the crack, before smiling sheepishly. "I worked out a lot." he frowned, remembering something Kakashi had said. "But you said 'we', like other people knew about you waking me up."

"If I had said 'I' instead of 'we', you'd have thought I was using you for my own means and you wouldn't have trusted me." Kakashi stated simply.

"I don't trust you anyway." Naruto shot back. He slumped onto the bed, knowing he had no choice but to start. "What are we gonna do?"

"I'm planning something that will get you out of here. For now, act as if I haven't come down and talked to you." Kakashi stood upright, looking confident and in control. Unfortunately, Nartuo saw straight through it.

"You have no idea what to do," he stated flatly, giving the man an incredulous look.

"No, I don't." Kakashi admitted, going back to his regular slump. "But I'll think of something, just stay alive until I can."

"You make it sound easy." Naruto grumbled, but he sighed and nodded anyway. "I've dealt with a lot of stuff, staying alive for a few tests will be easy." He didn't know if either part of that statement was true, but Kakashi would be put at ease.

"Good, take care Naruto." Kakashi swept out of the room, closing the door and turning the heavy lock. No doubt they'd put a code into it soon in case he came back.

Sighing at his situation, he turned around and headed back for the elevator. Kidnaping a test subject was never easy; everyone who had ever tried had been caught and 'dealt with'. He had an idea about how, too. It was so obvious; he was sure they didn't just move away.

That triggered his brain into gear, remembering that Itachi had just moved into the more rich side of town, owned a mansion, no less, that he shared with his younger brother. Kakashi hadn't seen the place yet, but he was sure there was plenty of room for a third person. Sasuke probably wouldn't like it (that kid didn't like _anything_), but if Itachi told him to suck it up, he would.

Smiling at his sudden brain flash, Kakashi pulled out his cell phone. It had all kinds of useless tools on it, but it was basically the same as it had been a hundred years previous.

He pushed the number five, Itachi's speed dial number. The two had worked together on so many projects and had grown to be something like friends. Not really, though, Itachi would still kill him when he found out about their predicament. He was lucky Orochimaru hadn't pinned him down yet.

The phone rang a few times and Kakashi suddenly feared he wouldn't pick up.

"What?" Itachi's irritated voice filtered through, startling him a bit. He quickly regained his composure and started in an offhanded tone.

"Hey, kiddo, I need a favor..."

* * *

_Whee, I finally updated! I'm sorry for not doing it for so long, but my grades are in the shitter right now, and I had to concentrate on that before anything else. But now I've decided to hell with it and you've got your update! This chapter wrote itself anyway, so the least I could do before I went on another "vacation" was let you read it. As always, point out any mistakes with grammar and spelling, it'd be much appreciated! Or anything that didn't make sense._

_-Slaughter_


	5. Ain't Nobody but You

**3/30/07**

_Itachi Uchiha : Uchiha Residence : 2156_

* * *

Itachi didn't like it one bit. 

The more he listened to his old colleague's rambling, the more infuriated he became. The damn fool had let Orochimaru find out about the Uzumaki kid; had allowed his own _name_ to slip into all the gossip. In under forty-eight hours. _Idiot_.

"No." He said flatly, figuring that since Kakashi had gotten him involved he now had the authority to go against his superior. "I won't do it."

Kakashi sighed, the sound static in his ear. "Itachi, I'm not sure you understand what Orochimaru's capable of."

Itachi glanced out of his doorway, to where Sasuke was sitting in the study, idly flipping through an old fashioned book. He watched his younger brother for a moment, allowing his guard to drop for only a split second, to allow pity, anger, and disgust to appear on his face. Only for a moment, though, then he was back to the emotionless man he was.

"Don't pull that on me, Kakashi. I know _exactly_ what Orochimaru can do." Itachi picked up the only picture he kept on his desk, examining it with detached interest before putting it back down carefully.

"Itachi-"

"Besides," Itachi cut him off, "I already have one failed experiment in my house, I don't need another."

"Naruto isn't a failed experiment; he's a human being that was born a century ago. He will need to be placed into an entirely different class."

"Elderly?"

"I didn't know you made jokes." Kakashi was getting annoyed, Itachi could hear it.

"I won't house someone who's going to be a threat to my existence." Itachi put a note of finality into his tone, hoping it would deter the older man.

Of course, Kakashi completely ignored it. "Like you said, Uchiha, you already have one stolen experiment, what's one more going to do?"

"It was not stolen." He frowned and crumpled an old note to cook dinner at eight, which he supposed he never did. Itachi wouldn't cook to save his life, not when there were all kinds of technology doing it for them.

"Oh? So, you _borrowed_ it for nearly two decades?"

Itachi closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, almost ready to start praying for patience. "_I_ wasn't the one who took it."

"True, but you're guilty by association." It was obvious Kakashi was starting to enjoy taunting him; he had to steer the conversation into his favor.

"Are you blackmailing me, Kakashi?" He let a dangerous note slip into his voice.

Once again, the man wasn't the least put off by it. "Perhaps. All I'm asking is that you house Naruto until we can figure out what to do with him."

"And there's nothing in it for me?"

Kakashi sighed again. "Somehow I knew you wouldn't do this just out of the goodness of your heart."

"Answer me, Kakashi."

"We'll see."

Itachi opened a drawer, pulling out a necklace. His mother had made it, along with the ones Sasuke and Itachi wore around their necks. She'd been expecting a child when she'd made the one in his hand, before she'd been murdered. They never found out who'd done it, so Itachi kept the third in his desk as a constant reminder of what could have been, of what had been stolen from them.

It was just a simple emblem of the sun on a gold chain; somehow, it fit.

Itachi hung up the phone, deciding that he'd better tell Sasuke, for the sake of keeping him informed. He'd be furious if he came home one day and Uzumaki was randomly sitting in the kitchen or living room. Especially if he knew that Itachi had planned it with Kakashi.

For a reason that Itachi couldn't fathom, Kakashi disliked Sasuke; not outright hated him, but the older man seemed to have a sort of strange emotion whenever the younger Uchiha was around. It was almost like disappointment. That couldn't be right, Kakashi had no reason to be disappointed in Sasuke, but it was the closest thing Itachi could identify the look in his eyes with. Other emotions swirled around that man's head whenever the two were together, but Itachi wasn't concerned with those; they all seemed to be negative anyway.

Likewise, Sasuke seemed to hold himself differently when Kakashi was in the same room with him. He became distant, cold, often leaving whatever he was doing to get somewhere else, even if he was in the middle of talking. He shut the older man out with such silent force that it left Itachi bewildered. There was absolutely no reason for the two to act the way they did.

He ran a hand through his hair, frowning. How best to tell his little brother the news? Deciding that it didn't matter, he got to his feet and meandered out of his office.

Sasuke was still sitting in the chair, his legs now tucked under him as he concentrated on whatever it was that he was reading. His brow was furrowed and he was looking at the page incredulously, probably uncomprehending of whatever was going on in the book.

"What are you reading?"

Sasuke looked up, startled. Not surprising, as Itachi had never really took an active interest in whatever Sasuke was doing. He _mostly_ let the kid do whatever he wished. Now that Itachi was actually prodding into his interests, Sasuke most likely suspected that something was going on.

"To Kill a Mocking Bird." He answered warily, eyeing Itachi with distrust. "Why?"

"No reason. There's a kid who's going to live with us." Itachi abruptly changed topic, figuring that taking the situation head-on would be better; he was never one to skirt the issue anyway.

Sasuke blinked, and then frowned, taking the information in stride. "For how long?"

"I don't know yet, probably a while."

Sasuke sighed, closing the book. "Who is it?"

"A kid named Naruto, he's about your age, so you should get along." Itachi knew that wasn't true, Sasuke wasn't exactly the easiest to get close to, but he played the age thing up regardless.

"As long as he stays out of my way." Sasuke muttered, glowering at the floor.

"Actually, little brother," Sasuke stiffened and Itachi felt a prickle of amusement, apparently, he knew that Itachi only ever gave bad news when he said 'little brother', "I want you to look after him."

The younger stared, uncomprehending. Once again, Itachi understood perfectly. He normally didn't trust Sasuke with people (especially experiments, but Sasuke didn't know Naruto was one) who he bothered to let stay in the Uchiha household. He really didn't let Sasuke into his work life, and he stayed well away from his younger brother's school life. It was a silent agreement between the two that they would never discuss it, unless they had nothing better to do.

"Me? Look after him?" Sasuke sounded incredulous, probably wondering why his brother was acting so different.

"Yes. I'll be busy with work and he can't just do nothing all day." _That was true_, Itachi thought, _that kid _can't_ do nothing_, _from what I've seen_,_ it's impossible for him to even sit still_.

"At school too?"

Itachi cursed mentally. He'd forgotten all about that! Sasuke would be suspicious if Naruto didn't attend school, after all, he'd already told him that the blond was his age, didn't he? Damn it! The kid wasn't even there and he was already causing problems.

He considered saying that Naruto was home schooled, but discarded it; it wouldn't work. Itachi had _also_ said that he'd be busy with work; Sasuke would definitely figure out that something wasn't right if he started to suddenly take back his words and replace them with ones he wouldn't normally say.

He thought this all over in a second and decided upon a safe answer; safe for Itachi anyway, Naruto and Kakashi would probably kill him later.

"No," he answered breezily, "just here. You'll probably see him around school, so keep an eye on him."

Sasuke nodded slowly, opening his book again and giving Itachi a glance. To let him know the conversation was over, Itachi stood and headed out of the study, finding himself on the second floor balcony, looking over the railing to the front door.

He shook his head and turned left, for the stairs, and climbed them, taking a right at the top landing and going all the way down balcony there. He opened the door directly in front of him, stepping into another hallway. Frowning, he decided that his new house was too big, opening the first door on the right, his bedroom.

It wasn't fancy, just big, with blue carpeting and a canopy bed on the left wall. His dresser and mirror directly to his left, next to the door. On the opposite wall there was a door to the far left, to the outside balcony that was never used. Another door directly across from him led to the bathroom. That, too, was nothing great. It just had a white marble floor, a bath tub on the left, a shower next to that, two sinks across with a small wall that hid the toilet.

He sat down on his bed, putting his elbows on his thighs and clasping his hands in front of him. It was a pose he and Sasuke often adopted when they were either thinking or at a total loss, sometimes both.

Right now, it was both. Kakashi had told him merely that he'd be "kidnapping" Naruto sometime within the week. As it was Thursday morning, that only gave the other man two days, three if he was dumb enough to attempt it so quickly.

For some reason, Itachi didn't bother to rule that out.

So, with a weary sigh and patented stubbornness, Itachi began to think.

* * *

_Okay, so this has more details and drawn out sentences than what I normally do, but I hope that doesn't deter anyone (don't see why it should, but anyway...). I was trying to fufill a request to make the chapters longer (I seem to get those a lot). I was aiming for five thousand words... didn't quite make it, did I? ha! Anyway, I'll hurry and end this note with a very cheery ENJOY!_

_-Slaugher_


	6. Dreams, Voices and a Ping

**4/16/07**

_Naruto Uzumaki: Konoha Research Facility: 2156_

* * *

Neji walked into the office first, followed by Sakura and then Naruto. Neji had inevitably won their race and had basked in his pride for a while, before Sakura had given him a swift kick. He wasn't pouting but they could tell that if he could, he would have been. 

"Reporting for the mission," Neji said smoothly as his professional side came through.

Tsunade nodded and dug through her never-ending stack of papers as she muttered about organization. Two of the three waited patiently, the third amused himself by making faces at the ANBU with a badger mask, who was sitting on the windowsill. He sniggered when the ANBU tensed, ready to fly at Naruto for irritating him.

"Here we go," Tsunade finally said, pulling out a sheet of paper, "you'll be escorting a tea shop owner to Suna. It's only a C rank but I figured I could spare a few, since there hasn't been much going on.

Teams are little mixed right now, especially yours. With Sasuke in the ANBU and still serving his probation he's not allowed more than fifteen kilometers away from the village. Lee is on a solo right now and Tenten's been held up in the Land of Waves along with Gai, something about a rouge encounter, they'll be back tomorrow. I'm sending you three because you're the only ones I trust to come back quickly and _will you cut it out,_ _Naruto_."

Naruto froze in a half-snarl half-grimace as Tsunade turned to him with an annoyed glare. He slowly allowed his face to go back to normal.

"Sasuke started it."

The ANBU scoffed.

"Don't address him by name, you know that," Sakura hissed. She looked at the ANBU member and gave an irritatingly polite smile. "Sorry if he's bothering you, he's missing a few pieces."

The ANBU badger nodded once to show that he understood.

"We know it's him, Sakura! What does it matter if we say his name _here_?" Naruto frowned and crossed his arms.

"Anyone could be listening." Neji answered, turning for the door. "We have to get going soon, so get anything you need and come back here. I'm assuming I'm team leader?" he asked Tsunade.

She nodded. "Yeah, you are. Keep them in line, Hyuga, _especially_ him." She jerked her index finger at Naruto, who'd gone back to making faces. "Naruto, stop harassing my shinobi."

"Oh, so he's yours now, too? It fits, he belongs to all the girls in the village, from what I've seen. Probably even a few males."

The badger apparently couldn't take anymore of Naruto's taunts. He dove in and drew his fist back. Naruto quickly side-stepped the blow and kicked out with his right leg reflexively. It landed a hit on the ANBU's back and he grunted. He turned then and punched Naruto in the jaw, sending the blond to the floor.

He jumped back to his feet and was about to deal it back when Sakura stepped in the way, holding both arms out. Fearing what would happen to him if he tried to continue the fight, Naruto backed off. The ANBU also seemed to be slightly apprehensive of the damage that could be done and stopped as well.

"Headaches, all of you," Tsunade mumbled, rubbing her temples. "Out of my office, now!"

The four quickly ran into the hall, afraid of making the woman angry. The three males momentarily forgot that there was another to be worried about.

Sakura immediately turned on them when they were out of earshot of the office, her eyes blazing.

"What the _hell_ were you doing fighting in _ther_e?" She demanded.

"Uh..." Naruto tried to think of an answer, but came up blank. He turned to the ANBU, as did Sakura.

"_Well_?"

The badger turned his head between Naruto and Sakura, as if confused at the sudden switch in blame. He let out a sigh and they knew that he had rolled his eyes.

"Naruto's fault," was all he said before taking off.

* * *

Naruto awoke with a startled jump. He sat up and looked around, eyes wide. It was dark in the white room, dimly lit by a light he couldn't see, turning everything silver. _Moonlight_, he realized, blinking. It was fake, he knew, but it was still comforting. He'd spent all day in his room with fake sunlight, so the moonlight was a nice change. 

He let out a loud sigh and flopped back, staring at the ceiling. Another dream. He'd only had that one when Kakashi had knocked him out with that syringe thing, he hadn't really expected to have another. It was made even more weird by the fact that it was a continuation of the previous one. Far as he knew, that rarely, if ever, happened to _anyone_.

This time there was the introduction of that lady, Tsunade, whoever _she_ was and that... _ANBU _guy, Sasuke.

Naruto vaguely remembered a Tsunade, tall and blond, _voluptuous_, from his own time, but they were scattered things. Like that fact that he called her granny or something. That was all he could manage to pick up.

Sasuke had dark hair. That was all Naruto could pin him as. And, if his dream was to be believed, he was tall, lithe, and muscular.

"Damn it," Naruto muttered, flinging an arm over his eyes. Memory was a damn waste of time, especially if one had _wait_ for it.

With nothing else to do, Naruto tried to get back to sleep. It didn't come; instead, voices filled his ears, ones he knew were in his head.

"_Team Seven... Naruto Uzumaki... Sakura Haruno..."_

"_Woo-hoo!"_

"..._I'm doomed..."_

"_...and Sasuke Uchiha."_

"_Woo-hoo!"_

"_...I'm doomed._"

Naruto shook his head, trying in vain to get the voices out.

"_Then why don't you try to get _better _than me?_"

"Stop!" Naruto shouted, annoyed, gritting his teeth and clutching his head as he fought the tirade of unrecognizable voices.

"_Congratulations! You've passed_!"

"_Let's see, based on my first impression... I hate you_!"

"_Naruto, you're annoying_."

"_Yes, boss_!"

"_You're one of the ones I want to fight_."

"_Y- You're really inspiring to watch because you're not perfect... because you make mistakes_."

"_A presence that is too powerful becomes a presence that is feared._"

"_Let's show them our power._"

An image in his mind smirked at him and he felt his annoyance spike.

"Get out," he growled with his eyes narrowed at the face.

"But I just got here."

Naruto shot up and stared in disbelief at Kakashi, who was standing in the door way, holding a metal bar up with amusement, the lock, along with some sort of power tool.

"This doesn't say much for our security," he remarked, tossing the bar aside. "Now get up, we have to get out of here _now_."

Naruto didn't waste time by asking questions, still too dazed by the bombardment of odd quotes. He hopped to his feet and grabbed his shirt, following Kakashi, who was already moving towards the elevator. It had been called back up, apparently, because when he pushed the up arrow it didn't open.

"Not good," the older man muttered, studying the buttons as if that would help somehow.

"Why?" Naruto asked absently. His senses were tingling unpleasantly and if there was one thing every ninja had been taught, it was to obey instincts when they called. His were screaming at him to get out of the open hallway and find someplace to hide.

"Anyone could have called it and it could be a guard or someone even more unpleasant who might come down here," Kakashi answered, his brow wrinkled in slight worry. "We don't stand a chance if we're caught."

Naruto shifted from to foot, unable to keep still. His movements were setting off Kakashi's internal alarms, he could see, but didn't care at that particular moment. Maybe being on edge would help a little.

They watched the lights above the elevator as it rapidly descended, getting more wound up the lower the numbers got. It seemed to take forever before the light was on their floor and paused longer than usual.

There was a small _ping_ and the doors opened.

* * *

_Didn't mean for it to be a cliffhanger, but it was begging to be stopped here. Reviews are appreciated, but not expected... speaking of which, what was up with last chapter? Not exciting, eh? haha._

_- Slaugher_


	7. Pure History

**6/29/07**

_Kakashi Hatake: Konoha Research Facility: 2156_

* * *

Kakashi felt himself pale considerably.Reflexively, he stepped to the side so that Naruto was out of view of the elevators. The boy gave him a puzzled frown, but didn't comment. 

"Maybe we should-"

"Shush."

Naruto made a face at him, but Kakashi didn't care at that particular moment. He was more concentrated on the steel doors, which were opening very slowly. He braced himself for the worst.

"You _are_ an idiot."

Kakashi felt several different kinds of relief as Itachi's drawl came from the slit between the elevator doors. The Uchiha's arival was unexpected, but welcome compared to Orochimaru.

He felt his face break out into a grin.

When the doors were open all the way, they revealed Itachi leaning against the back rail with his arms crossed, looking utterly bored, but annoyed. Even though he was noticably shorter, he was somehow looking at Kakashi down his nose, as if he were an angry superior.

"Itachi!" Not caring that he was obviously the source of Itachi's irritation, Kakashi bounded forward to give him a hug of relief, but was stopped by Naruto, who somehow managed to wrap his right leg around both of Kakashi's, sending the man to the floor.

"It's not the time," the blond snapped, stepping forward. "We have to go. Now."

The boy didn't say anything more, just stepped into the elevator, giving Itachi an awknowledging nod and turning around to glare at Kakashi, who was still sprawled on the floor.

"Hurry up!" He shouted impatiently.

Kakashi blinked and jumped to his feet, striding into the elevator and standing next to Itachi, who reached forward and pushed the button that would take them to the main floor. They shared a glance at Naruto's antsy behavior, but chose not to discuss it.

"I don't suppose you have a way to sneak him through the lobby?" Itachi asked idly. Kakashi's eyes widened while Itachi gave an irritated sigh. "I thought not."

"Doesn't matter," Naruto mumbled, watching the numbers above the door.

The older men shared another glance.

"If you say so," Kakashi finally answered, just as the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

Faster than they could see, Naruto was out of the small contraption and running across the lobby, toward the main enterance. One second he was standing with them and the next he was pushing open the glass doors. Kakashi's mouth had dropped and his eyes had widened. Even Itachi looked startled.

"Kakashi? I thought you were suspended this morning," a confused male voice cut through their surprise and they both snapped to attention.

"Oh, yes, I was," Kakashi answered as smoothly as he could, stepping out of the elevator and walking backwards towards the doors after Itachi. "I was just, you know... getting a personal item that I thought I could use at home...?"

The other man looked even more confused. "Itachi's one of your personal items?" He frowned with puzzlement as Kakashi and Itachi wondered what had implied that, but then his face had a sort of dawning comprehension. "_Oh_, I see. Well, I'm sorry about your suspension, Kakashi, and I hope everything works out. Be careful with Itachi." The man offered a vague wave and stepped into the elevator as the two walked out, wondering what the hell he meant.

Suddenly, Itachi stopped and paled, turning around and giving the man in the elevator a furious glare, even as Kakashi figured it out. He, too, spun on his heel and shouted at the closing doors.

"That's not what I meant!"

* * *

After five minutes of standing outside on the sidewalk, the three gave up on waiting for a human driven cab, because the satellite vehicles were shut off at night, and decided that they would walk to Itachi's home and hopefully one would drive by before they got there. 

Kakashi noticed that Naruto seemed to be annoyed by this plan, but was going along for one reason or another.

"So, how old are you, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. Although he prefered the silence, his curiosity was too much to handle.

"He's sixteen." Itachi answered.

Naruto frowned. "Hey, he was asking me and how would you know, anyway?"

Itachi looked at him as if the answer should be obvious. "I looked at your file."

Naruto apparently had no response to that, so Kakashi asked another question. "Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I didn't."

"You have a girlfriend?"

"Once." He sounded wistful.

"Boyfriend?"

"... I will not even answer that." His voice had gone flat.

Kakashi shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets. Why wasn't Itachi asking questions? Wasn't he at least a_ little_ interested at the pure history walking with them? He glanced at the man and shrugged again. Maybe not.

"Can I ask you something?" Naruto said after a brief moment of silence.

"Go ahead."

"What happened during the massacre? I know you told me that Konoha's nin' overthrew the Hokage and everyone got scared and all that, but what happened?" Naruto was looking at him seriously. He'd obviously been thinking about it for a while now. Kakashi got the feeling that he'd probably been close to a few ninja in his time.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, if you want to know. No one really knows what happened, but apparently, the Konoha ninja were severely upset with the fifth Hokage, the reason why has been lost through time, and they decided they would have to take care of it. They, of course, killed the Hokage and disguised someone else to fill the position until they could plan farther ahead, after all, the villagers couldn't tell the difference. But they grew ambitious. They lorded over the village and punished anyone who disobeyed them. The elders tried for days to restore order, but were unsuccessful. Other villages soon got wind of the news through refugees and their elders decided that it was time for a change. They banished ninja's and made laws that said if one was ever caught, they were to be killed on sight. They hired the most trustworthy and skilled ninja as assassins, to hunt and kill whatever rogue they could find. Things just went downhill from there and the story goes that they eventually trickled back into society, desguising themselves as regular villagers."

When he finished, Kakashi turned his head to give the blond boy a helpless smile and shrug, but was startled to see that Naruto's eyes were blazeing with anger. He was clenching and unclenching his fists, his face twisted into a snarl.

"Everyone bought that story?" He asked angrily, glaring at Kakashi as if he'd made the whole thing up.

Kakashi blinked. "Well, from the way things went, I would say so."

"That's lamest thing I've ever heard!"

Itachi stopped and frowned at him. "Why is that? You were frozen before any of it happened, so how can you know?"

"Kakashi said it was only a few _years_! I knew most of the ninja in Konoha back then!"

Itachi's face was more stony than ever and Kakashi knew there was something he wanted to say. Something he wanted to know. Some piece of information only Naruto could provide.

"Did you know the Uchiha's?" he asked finally.

Naruto faltered. "Uh... well..." he grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "I, um, don't really... _remember_..."

Kakashi and Itachi stared. Then exploded, in different ways.

"Why didn't you tell us this?" Kakashi's voice was low and stern. He knew this was going to cause a serious problem, sooner or later.

Itachi merely sighed and walked on, leaving them to argue on the sidewalk in front of a shop.

"You didn't ask! Besides, I didn't realize it until last night."

"But you talked as if you knew!"

"I just get feelings and I remember _some_ stuff."

Kakashi shook his head and stormed after Itachi. He heard Naruto start to follow a second later, but didn't care. If his plan was going to work, he _needed_ those memories. It was the only way.

Especially since he didn't have a damn clue as to what he was going to do in the first place.

* * *

_I honestly don't whether any information in this chapter is relevant, or even interesting, besides the story Kakashi told. It's just a short filler. Please point out any mistakes! If you noticed that the tone has changed, don't worry about it. I'm going to switch back to the other one in the next chapter. Until then, enjoy!_

_- Slaughter_


	8. Itachi's House

**08/30/07**

Itachi's House

_Itachi Uchiha: Uchiha Residence: 2156_

* * *

It was raining by the time the trio made it to Itachi's house. 

He felt odd about letting the two into the mansion, as Sasuke would be home, asleep. Granted, Sasuke was on the second floor, in the room farthest from the receiving room and unless he was in the kitchen or dining room, he wouldn't hear them unless he was still awake. There was nothing he could do about it for now, though he figured the two had enough sense to keep quiet.

"Follow me," he muttered, heading straight ahead, to the stairs directly in front of the door. He didn't bother to turn on the light, as he knew his way around.

The floor gave an ethereal glow in the artificial moonlight Itachi had installed it a couple of days previous. The walls were a simple brown color, painted to look like wood, though they were really metal. Double doors were on the left and the right of the room. Behind the stairs was an elevator that Itachi hadn't tested yet, so he had no idea where it went, as none of the other floors had one.

A red carpet led from the front door to the stairs. It covered each step and split where the stairs did, going two ways. A metal door was directly in the center where they split, halfway up to the second floor. It was locked and Itachi hadn't received the key for it, so he didn't know where that led, either. A chandelier hung directly above the door, filled with thousands of crystals that reflected off the floor and walls, making everything look starry.

Kakashi hadn't been in the place yet, but he seemed unimpressed. He merely followed Itachi up the stairs quietly, turning left when they reached the split.

Naruto, on the other hand, was staring open-mouthed at everything. He was unusually stealthy, silently following the men, despite his obvious awe and curiosity. Itachi gave him credit for simply keeping quiet.

He quickly made it to the second floor, turning left again and opening a door that was almost hidden in the niche. He gestured to the others to go first and silently locked the door when they were in.

"Light," he whispered and a lamp flickered on down the hall.

He ignored Naruto's startled looked and went ahead of their small group, opening the first door on the right. It was a simple guest bedroom, with cream colored walls, a double sized bed in the left corner and dressers, along with a mirror, on the right side of the room.

"Naruto, you'll stay here." Itachi moved to let the blond boy in and was pleased when Naruto gave the room an approving nod. He'd thought the boy would put up a fight, as the room wasn't very welcoming, just plain.

"Do what you want with it later, for now, just get to sleep. I have to talk with Kakashi about something."

The boy nodded and Itachi stepped back into the hallway, closing the door. He turned to the other man and gave him a steely gaze, frowning slightly.

Feeling slightly awkward in the confined space and he abruptly turned and headed down the short hall, towards his private study. Kakashi followed silently and Itachi was grateful for that. He didn't need to hear any of his colleague's random remarks about his home.

When they reached the room, Itachi opened the door and winced. It was a mess. On the opposite side of the door, in the corner, was his desk, built into the building. It was circular and right now it looked as if Itachi had thrashed it trying to look for something. Across from the desk, two small bookshelves split the room in half, filled with old literature that Sasuke constantly took from him. Behind the bookshelves was another door that led to a small balcony and stairway, as well as three other rooms.

Sighing, he went to his desk, leaning against the front of it rather than sitting in his chair. Kakashi took a seat at a chess board near the door, next to a stereo.

"Why did you take him tonight?" Foregoing any small talk, Itachi just jumped right into it.

Kakashi had the nerve to look slightly sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding Itachi's gaze.

"I thought it would be best if we got him out of there as quickly as possible. Tomorrow or any night afterwards and it might have been too late." The man answered easily, almost bored, but Itachi saw that he was tense.

"Even Orochimaru can't work that fast, Kakashi, you know that. You risked Naruto's life as well as your own. You also placed me in jeopardy, _along_ with Sasuke. If we had been caught, punishment wouldn't be a suspension, Kakashi, we could end up like Mizuki."

Kakashi winced at the mention of the other silver-haired man who had stolen an experiment. Mizuki had been one of the best at Konoha Research, but that hadn't mattered when he'd taken an odd looking knife covered with a black substance that everyone suspected had been blood. When Orochimaru had found out, Mizuki had quickly been "reprimanded" and the knife now sat on his desk, a reminder for anyone who thought they could try something and get away with it. Mizuki ended up being demoted to lab assistant and an odd scar ran down the length of the right side of his face. Sometimes he would never speak, while at others he would babble incoherently.

"Orochimaru had a conference tonight in Suna," Kakashi said, trying to put conviction in his voice, but failing, "he can't catch us if he's two hours away."

"It doesn't matter, when he finds out Naruto is missing, he'll know it was us... or, he'll know it was you, at least." Itachi suddenly felt worry seep into his skin, an unpleasant sensation.

"He's not going to be back for at least another week, by then we will have figured out what to do with the boy and it won't be a problem to prove that I was not responsible for kidnaping him."

That _sounded_ reasonable, but Kakashi's plans had a way of going in completely the opposite direction than from what had been laid out.

"Those conferences always end early and security could decide to do a sweep. We could be caught before Orochimaru even returns."

Kakashi suddenly smiled, looking pleased. "Security won't be doing a sweep any time soon and if they do, it'll be easy enough convince them not to tell anyone what happened."

Itachi frowned. "Why?"

"Iruka's filling in for Genma."

Itachi couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief. Genma was an honest man and he would understand their reasoning, but he'd still sell them out because that was what he was getting paid to do. Iruka, on the other hand, had a soft spot for children and wouldn't dare tell Orochimaru anything if he felt that what they'd done had been for the right reasons. It also helped that Itachi himself was an old student of his.

Kakashi suddenly yawned and stood up, stretching. He gave Itachi an inquiring look and the younger sighed again, straightening.

"You can stay in the room next to Naruto's."

"And you will be...?"

The elder Uchiha gestured vaguely around. "In here. I need to clean this place up."

Kakashi nodded and grabbed the door handle, but paused, a frown suddenly appearing on his masked face.

"How are we going to explain to Sasuke? He can't let anyone know that Naruto is here."

"I took care of it." Itachi began to straighten his desk up, putting papers away and throwing random pieces of junk into the trash, which incinerated everything that fell in it. He suddenly froze, but resumed his task almost a second later.

Kakashi noticed. The man was nothing if not perceptive. "What is it?"

"... I told him that Naruto would be attending school with him."

The man slumped and didn't bother to stifle his groan.

"We'll take care of it in the morning. While Sasuke's at school, we'll have plenty of time to discuss and plan."

Kakashi frowned again, but slowly nodded. "That'll work. Good night, Itachi. Don't stay up too late."

Itachi gave another unclear wave and decided that maybe straightening up his study could wait. "Expression of individuality", as Sasuke might say.

His mouth quirked up into an amused smirk, but vanished when Mizuki crossed his mind again.

Hopefully, this whole thing could be sorted out before anyone realized anything had even happened.

* * *

_Once again, the tone has changed. Sorry about that.  
I said I'd update in August, didn't I? I know I'm toeing the line, but hey, it's here. I actually wrote the beginning of this at the end of July, but forgot about it because of school. I had a completely different chapter, but trashed it because it didn't sound right. It "officially" introduced Sasuke, as in, it was written in his POV instead of Naruto's, Kakashi's, or Itachi's, but like I said, it wasn't right this early. And I want to know something. Would you guys like Sasuke to be a "main" character? I haven't decided on that yet and figured readers could give me a straight answer. Right now, he's simply a very important supporting character. For an explanation, see my profile.  
Anyway, get back to me and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. _

_- _Slaughter


	9. Familiar Voices, Familiar Faces

**09/11/07**

Familiar Voices, Familiar Faces

_Naruto Uzumaki: Uchiha Residence: 2156_

* * *

"_Idiot."_

_Naruto blinked and looked around, startled. Wherever he was, it was dark, pitch black. He experimentally waved a hand in front of his face. Though he knew it was there, it was disconcerting not to see it. It was too dark._

_Gathering his bearings, Naruto cautiously took a step. He didn't know where he thought he was going, he just felt a slight pull from somewhere ahead of him. He swelled with courage as his first step guaranteed there was actually a floor and confidently walked ahead._

"_You've forgotten me."_

_The voice was just an echoing whisper and it came from all around. Naruto noticed that it was deep and scratchy, as well as slightly angry. He frowned. It also sounded familiar._

"_Of all things... dumb brat."_

_That statement both puzzled and pissed off Naruto. Who the hell would dare to him a dumb brat. His temper roused, Naruto bristled and pointed ahead, where he assumed the owner of the voice was located._

"_Who are you calling a dumb brat? I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the greatest ninja to have ever walked the earth!" _

_He blinked and swayed a little. His voice was echoing as well, and it sounded too loud for this dark place. His retort also confused him. What the hell was he going on about? The greatest ninja? _Was_ he? How did he earn _that_ title?_

_The voice chuckled darkly and a little bitterly. "Haven't changed, I see. You'll always be a loud-mouthed brat. A hundred and twenty nine years of sleep won't change either of us."_

_Naruto looked around, tensing. Everything was lighting up. He could see walls dripping and the floor was wet with the fluid. He also noted that the light was a rusty, reddish color._

"_What's going on?" he asked, panicked. This scene was starting to look _so damn familiar_ but he couldn't place it._

"_Just giving you some light, idiot. I know you can't see in the darkness of your inner sanctum." _

_Inner sanctum? Naruto looked ahead, where a giant cage took up an entire wall, floor to ceiling. It gave off a strange warmth and it was the only that was still dark. He couldn't see very far past the bars of the cage._

"_Who are you? Where the hell am I?" He took a step back._

"_Someone you apparently forgot and I told you where you were. But now is not the time, boy. My strength is failing here, for a reason I don't know. It's taking effort just to stay awake now. Next time, I promise to delay you for far longer but as for now I need rest and you need to leave." _

* * *

Naruto sat up with a jolt, looking around wildly. He was in the guest bedroom, which was alight with the glow from a lamp on the dresser. There was not even a faint echo of the voice nor were the walls dripping. 

A glance at the clock on the night stand told him that it was eight in the morning. He didn't know whether it was alright for him to get up yet, but he figured he had to do something. Anything besides dwell on that dream. He didn't want to do that just yet.

Pushing the dream out of his mind, Naruto put on his shoes and got to his feet. He crept to the door and opened it slowly, checking the hall for signs of life.

Seeing none, he closed his door and went to the door they had come through that night. He pulled it open and blinked in surprise. The landing was _huge_. Red carpet covered the floors and silver railings were set in giant squares in the center of the landing, presumably for the balcony looking down on the first floor. He noticed that were other doors all around and another stairway all the way across from where he was standing.

Naruto suddenly felt small and he didn't like it. He frowned and set off to the main stairway, determined to make himself feel as if he had a purpose and to find something to eat.

When he was on the first floor again he had two choices. The double doors on his right were painted a deep red, and the ones on his left were a pale blue. He didn't know if they were color coded or something, but he liked the look of the red doors, so he took those ones.

The room was incredibly long and the dining table stretched all the way through it. It had candles set all along it, but there were only three chairs at the far end. Across the room was a fireplace, with a symbol that looked vaguely familiar painted above it. Two thin windows were on either side of it.

Naruto was about to leave when he noticed that there were other doors in the room, two at the far end. So, if this was the dining room, one of the two had to be the kitchen, right?

Grinning, he just about ran through the room and took the door on the left.

It was the kitchen, all right. It was done in blacks and grays. Black counter tops, black chairs, gray floors and cabinets. It was kind of depressing.

He froze when his eyes caught sight of another boy in the room.

The other guy's back was turned, so he hadn't noticed Naruto yet, but the blond thought that even his back looked familiar. His shoulders were broad, his hair was in an odd, spiked style, and he seemed tall, even while sitting.

This had to be Itachi's brother. Or a relative, it couldn't be anyone else.

The door chose that moment to swing shut with a loud _bang_.

The boy spun around, on his feet and ready for a fight before Naruto could blink. Which he did, when he got a look at the boy's face.

He had royal features, a narrow chin and smooth complection. His nose was small and hooked in a way that most girls would call 'cute'. His face was pale and his eyes contrasted it greatly, they were so dark, and right now they were glaring suspiciously at Naruto, who had frozen.

This was the boy from his picture.

_Impossible_, Naruto thought as the boy frowned, _this can't be him! He'd have to be over a hundred and there's just no way he's that old!_

"Who are you?" the boy asked, still glaring.

"I'm, uh, Naruto." he offered a weak smile but only got a deeper frown in response.

"Itachi's friend?"

Naruto blinked. Well, he wouldn't say _that_, exactly, but whatever worked. "Yeah, I just got here last night and-"

"Last night?" the boy interrupted him.

"Yeah, listen, is there anything-"

"He just told me about you yesterday." the boy gave Naruto an accusing glare, as if that was _his_ fault.

"Eh, sorry, I guess. I didn't know I'd be coming here until yesterday, either," _more like this morning_, "but do you have anything to eat? I'm starving."

The boy stared at him for a few more seconds before sighing and coming out of his fighting stance. "Yeah, what do you want?"

Naruto said the first thing that came to mind. "Ramen."

The boy gave him an odd look. "We don't have any here."

Disappointment filled him, but Naruto shook it off and smiled again. "Alright, then what _do_ you have?"

The boy sighed again pulled a bowl out from a cabinet. He set it under the sink and quietly mumbled "Porridge". The sink spit out just enough to fill the bowl and the boy took it and set it across the island he was sitting at.

"That."

Naruto stared but came out of his daze and cautiously sat across from the boy, who was eating his own bowl of the stuff. He picked at it with a spoon that was already there, wondering why the boy was so quiet. He nodded to himself and decided to break it.

"What's your name?" Naruto asked cheerily. He was trying too hard and he knew it, but he didn't care right then.

"Sasuke." the boy answered shortly.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

Naruto blinked. He looked so much older than that.

"Girlfriend?" he asked in a teasing voice. The kid was younger than him, he felt obligated to tease.

Sasuke appeared startled, then he looked up sharply. "No."

Naruto nodded vaguely, wondering about the look. Sasuke seemed to have not been expecting the question, but not in the 'oh, what' kind of way. More like he'd heard it before in the same tone of voice from someone he'd known.

"Awake Naruto?"

The blond looked up and saw Kakashi enter the room. His hair was wet and he smelled a little like vanilla. Naruto guessed that he'd showered before coming down.

"Couldn't get back to sleep." Naruto remembered his dream with a wince. He still didn't want to think about it.

Kakashi nodded, but he froze for a moment when he registered Sasuke's presence. He then relaxed, but Naruto saw that he still seemed a little tense.

"Sasuke." the man gave him a small nod.

"Kakashi." Sasuke was also stiff. He'd straightened himself out and was regarding Kakashi with narrowed eyes. "Itachi didn't say that you'd be staying as well."

"It was impromptu." Kakashi answered. "It was too late to call a cab so your brother gave me permission to stay the night."

Sasuke frowned, an expression Naruto was already getting used to seeing. He then got up and put his bowl in the sink, not looking at Kakashi or Naruto.

"I have a club meeting after school today, so tell Itachi I'll be home late." With that, Sasuke grabbed a black bag from the corner of the kitchen and slung it over his shoulder. He paused then offered the two a small nod.

Naruto watched the door swing shut, feeling confused.

Itachi then came in from a door that Naruto hadn't noticed. He was wearing a black suit again, but his hair was flowing freely over his shoulders.

"Sasuke leave?" he asked, either not noticing or ignoring the tense atmosphere the boy had left behind.

Kakashi nodded. "He said he had a club meeting and that he'd be late tonight."

"Good. That'll give us more time to plan what we do next." he sighed, "I don't know why he's so interested in myths and legends and history. He's almost obsessed."

"Sasuke is a strange kid and it's probably just a phase." Kakashi said, turning and getting his own bowl of porridge. Naruto regarded it thoughtfully. Was that the breakfast of choice in the future or something?

"I don't think so," Itachi muttered darkly, "He likes the old stories, yes, but there's this one legend he's particularly fond of. One about a fox or something. It's unhealthy for a kid his age to spend his time reading up on old tales that probably aren't even true."

_Kyuubi,_ Naruto thought, dropping his spoon into his bowl. _That's that dream this morning! It wasn't a dream, it was Kyuubi!_

He felt a little stab of guilt. He'd forgotten all about the damn fox after everything had started to happen. His brow furrowed in confusion. But why hadn't Kyuubi tried to contact him until now?

He thought back to his encounter. Kyuubi hadn't said anything vitally important. At least, he didn't think so. All he'd said was that they'd been asleep for almost a hundred thirty years and... that he was weak. Not in those words, but Naruto knew a weary voice when he heard one. Kyuubi had sounded tired, drained.

He fought a wave of panic.

Kyuubi was weak now, too weak to have stayed awake and gotten information from Naruto. That was bad. That was _really_ bad. What did one do to heal a weak fox spirit?

He didn't know, but what he _did_ know was that it had taken some of the Kyuubi's strength to drag him into the fox's lair. That was also bad. It normally shouldn't have been a problem, it was one those things that just happened.

He glanced at the two men, who were now eating and talking about the world outside of the research facility. Naruto didn't really care about that so he attempted to contact the Kyuubi.

_Hey fox! You there?_

No answer.

He tried a few more times, with the same result. His panic had escalated, so he gave up their verbal link and tried to push his consciousness into the lair.

To his surprise, the attempt didn't work. His vision went murky for a moment, the walls and cage visible along with the dark kitchen. But he was pushed out. Naruto desperately braced himself to try again, but a second later he suddenly felt exhausted.

He collapsed onto the counter, his porridge pushed aside and smashing on the floor. His head felt light and his body heavy and he couldn't figure out _why_.

The scrapes of chairs and Kakashi's shout were the last thing he heard.

* * *

_Well, the issue with Sasuke hasn't been resolved, but right now people are leaning toward having him as a side character. I will say that the action (yes! there will be action!) later in the story will be severely cut without him, but the side character role makes things... I don't know, interesting? Oh yeah, another thing. Would you guys like to see chapters in other characters POV's or do you like it with just these three?  
As always, point out any mistakes. Thanks._

_-Slaughter_


	10. Faulty Stories

**11/25/07**

Faulty Stories

_Kakashi Hatake: Konoha High School: 2156_

* * *

A foot tapped impatiently on the too-white floor, as the owner frowned behind his mask. 

Kakashi checked his watch, then looked at the ceiling, then at the floor, then at the door directly across from him. Itachi had sent him off to enroll Naruto into school.

He didn't see why; Orochimaru could just tap a few keys and then he'd have the boy back under his fist in a heartbeat . Even if they _were_ using an alias.

Itsuki Uchiha, why would they give that name to Naruto? Kakashi had stared at Itachi when he'd thrown it out, thinking that it was a very _peculiar_ name to choose. Then again, Naruto wasn't going to be pretending to be Kakashi's long-lost younger brother. Which was also a faulty story, but hey, if it worked, then they had less to worry about.

"Kakashi Hatake, Shizune will see you now."

Kakashi looked up and blinked at the small girl who was standing in front of him. She was wearing a rather short lavender skirt and tight purple blouse, with a long sleeved white shirt underneath. Her shoes were shined to perfection and her socks barely covered her ankles, leaving her legs largely exposed. He knew it was the uniform, but really, who thought them up? Perverts?

He gave her a small nod, tearing his blank gaze away from her, and strode into the office confidently. It was plain, with blue walls and a desk in the center of the room, two chairs in front of it. There were a few potted plants and a picture of a happy looking family behind the desk.

Shizune was standing in front of it, gazing at it sadly. Kakashi watched as she reached forward and lovingly ran her finger along the glass, over the face of a blonde girl with a happy smile.

He cleared his throat, feeling slightly awkward. The principal immediately withdrew her hand and turned her head, blinking when she saw him.

"Kakashi? What are you doing here?"

He frowned. "Have we met?"

Shizune seemed thrown by that, but she regained her composure quickly. Her faced easily morphed into an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I suppose not. I just know you from... around." she said vaguely. After a second she shook her head and her smile turned genuine. "I've read a few of your articles. I have to say that you're a very opinionated man, but well learned, if your writing is anything to go by."

"Most people don't agree," he said dryly, reaching under his coat and pulling out a small chip, "but I'm not here to discuss that, I'm here to enroll a student."

Shizune blinked again. She reached out to push a button on her desk, disguised as a paper weight. A small whir sounded and a monitor came up from where her name plate sat at the right.

Kakashi handed her the chip and watched with slight anxiety as she inserted it into a small slot on the side of the monitor. A screen came up and he politely looked away as she pressed in a password.

He heard a small gasp and, fearing the worst, he looked back at the screen and saw that it was just Naruto's picture, along with all of the necessary information that the school would need.

"A problem?" Kakashi asked when he noticed that Shizune was simply staring blankly at the screen.

She seemed to mentally shake herself before replying. "No, he just looks a little familiar is all. Itsuki Uchiha, huh?" the principal sounded amused, "any relation to Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Yes," Kakashi answered. Here came the harder parts of the fabricated story. "He's the long-lost brother."

Shizune turned and gave him a puzzled frown. "Long-lost brother? The one Mikoto was pregnant with when she died?"

Kakashi felt warning bells go off, but he ignored them, instead opting to go the easy course. "Who's Mikoto?"

"Oh..." Shizune trailed off, looking back at the screen. She tapped a few buttons, starting to go through "Itsuki's" files. "No one, I often get Mikoto Lee mixed up with Kagura Uchiha, they looked so alike, you know?"

He didn't, but decided to nod anyway.

A few minutes later, Shizune turned off the monitor, taking the chip out and handing it back to Kakashi with an amused smile back on her face.

"Everything seems to be in order. Because of his home-school education, Itsuki will have to take a test to determine his placement here, but other than that, I don't see why we can't take him in. He will be going home every night, so we don't have to worry about dorm room and his lunch will be provided by Itachi, I'm assuming, so that's taken care of." The woman stood and reached out. Kakashi took her hand and shook once.

"Is that all?" he asked, ready to get back to Itachi's house to check on Naruto.

Shizune's smile turned into a grin. "If he become's a troublemaker here, I'm sorry to say that Itsuki will have to consider going back to home-schooling. I will not tolerate brats in my school."

Kakashi nodded to show that he understood. "If that's all you need, then I will be leaving now."

Shizune gave a dismissive wave. "He's expected on Monday. His uniform will be delivered tomorrow and the cost will be taken out of Itachi's account."

She closed the door once Kakashi was in the hall.

He stood there, feeling confused, but relieved. Itachi's side of the story was holding up well so far, but whether or not Naruto would be able to stick to it was yet to be seen.

If he ever woke up.

"Excuse me? But have you seen a necklace around here?"

Kakashi looked down, noticing that the small girl from before was still in the hall, on her hands and knees... in front of him... dangerously close.

He felt the color rise to his cheeks as he sidestepped her, looking away. What the _hell_ was with the skimpy uniform? If he ever found who designed them, he'd kill them and then feed them to his dogs.

"No, I'm sorry, I haven't." he said in response to her question. She looked crestfallen.

"My father gave it to me, if he finds out I lost it, he'll kill me." she groaned. She got back to her feet as she spoke, dusting her skirt as she gave him a curious glance. "You're Kakashi Hatake, right?"

_Why does everyone know me all of a sudden?_ He thought, exasperated, even as he nodded and smiled at her. "I am."

She smiled widely and stuck out her hand. "I'm Yukina, Shizune's assistant. Most of the time, anyway. I'm year ten," she added as an afterthought, "I've read most of your stuff, and I've gotta say it's full of the most intelligent things I've ever seen! How you explained the difference between believing and knowing and all of that stuff about how our government is corrupt and-"

"I never said our government was corrupt," he interrupted, getting the feeling that if she was allowed to go on, she'd never stop, "I have to get going now. It was nice to meet you, Yukina."

She ignored him, falling in stride with his steps. "You don't have _say_ something to _imply_ it. You were _clearly_ talking about the Head Researcher at Konoha Facility and how he's so obviously controlling Konoha in general and that we should just make him Hokage to get it over with," she paused, thinking, "Oh, and you said he looks like, quote 'a pedophile with a snake's smile'."

Kakashi stopped walking, startled. "You caught that?"

Yukina, obviously pleased, flashed him her brightest smile. "Yeah! All you had to do was take every last word of every paragraph, rearrange it in order from the longest paragraph to the shortest and then knock off the s's. Not very complicated, Kakashi."

He peered at her with renewed interest. "Yukina, I have to say that I'm honestly pleased to meet you, but I have to get home now."

She looked crestfallen again. "Will you come back?"

He blinked. "If I ever have a reason."

She bristled. "I'm reason enough, Hatake! I don't get to have intelligent conversation's often, you know." she crossed her arms, thinking that she had made her point.

Kakashi couldn't help but be reminded of Naruto. He thought they would either get along just fine or clash greatly. Either way, here was someone to keep him company.

"You can talk to Sasuke Uchiha, he's a smart enough boy." he said carelessly. If she was looking for intelligent, then Sasuke was perfect.

Yukina, rather than looking surprised or even embarrassed at the thought of talking to Sasuke, looked horrified. "_Uchiha_? Are you _kidding_? He's so arrogant! And stuck up! And he's creepy quiet!"

"You're being redundant," he said, relieved at the sight of the double doors. The doors leading to Safety from this girl and her chatter. "It was nice meeting you, Yukina, but I have to get back to tending to some important matters."

"Now who's being redundant," she muttered darkly, stopping as Kakashi pushed open the doors.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped into the sunlight. The man quickly ran down the steps and jumped into the first cab he saw, giving Itachi's address and leaning back when it started to move. Guilt forced him into looking back and Kakashi saw that Yukina had left, probably back to wherever she was supposed to be in the first place.

He sank back into his seat, finally free to think about their plans so far. All they had come up with Naruto's name and little background information while the boy was unconscious. They hadn't even started to plan his role in bringing down Orochimaru.

That was what everything was about, they knew. Orochimaru's downfall.

Kakashi slid his money into the slot and got out of the cab, looking up at the Uchiha Mansion. He wasn't impressed, but he figured Itachi liked the room it offered.

He quickly ascended the steps leading to the front door, not caring that they made loud banging noises as he shut them. He knew that Itachi had taken Naruto to the infirmary of the house, which was through dining room, to the right door, to the left, across the hall.

Kakashi checked these places off as he hurried through the rooms, practically kicking down the door when he reached it.

He needn't have rushed, he saw, as Naruto was still out, laying on the one cot in the room. He was breathing steadily, moaning every now and then. Exactly as they had left him that morning.

"Next time you're in a rush, please remember to close the doors behind you."

Kakashi turned, not surprised to see that he hadn't noticed Itachi sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. The elder Uchiha was holding a book in his lap, looking through it with detached interest. He didn't bother to look up as he spoke to Kakashi.

"I'd also appreciate it if you didn't make so much noise when you run around my house."

Kakashi smiled and sat down in the chair he had occupied only an hour ago, before Itachi had become irritated with trying to find out what was wrong with Naruto and had sent him out to enroll the kid.

"The principal accepted him in. He's going to start on Monday and his uniform should be here tomorrow. The charge is coming out of your pockets."

Itachi sighed and put the book aside. "She didn't ask questions?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, she just looked through the information we put together."

"I was expecting problems, but as long as she doesn't have reason to suspect him of anything, then he should be able to get through school however long we need him to."

"That's what I was going to ask you about before you kicked me out," Kakashi started, leaning forward in his chair and turning serious. "There's no way Naruto will be able to last in school for more than a few weeks, if that."

"So what's the question?"

Kakashi frowned. "How are we going to get him out of it? School's these days don't let go of students easily, they need reasons, not just us coming in and taking him out."

Itachi smiled thinly. "I thought about it while you were gone and there was only one way I could think of."

"And what's that?"

"We're going to have to kill him."

Kakashi slumped into his chair, running a hand down his face, feeling exasperated again.

Really, Itachi could be _so_ dramatic.

* * *

_Well, it's been ahwile, eh? Sorry. School again. Anyway, this chapter wasn't edited, but, like with all other chapters, I shall go back and correct them whenever I have the time.  
The Sasuke thing has been resolved, I think. People are leaning toward side-char, so I'm going that route and they seem to like just these three POV's. I'll see if I can stick with that, though it'll probably switch later.  
Oh, and, believe it or not, Yukina is NOT an OC. Feel free to guess who she is, but I don't plan on telling anytime soon. Or ever...__  
As always, hope you Enjoyed!_

_-Slaughter_


	11. A Starting Point

**2/29/08**

A Start

_Itachi Uchiha: Uchiha Residence: 2156_

* * *

Itachi slammed down the seventh book in half-an-hour, feeling immensely frustrated. 

It'd been two days since Naruto had passed out in the kitchen. He'd woken the night before, groggy and disoriented. He kept calling Kakashi "sensei" and had fought back when they'd tried to get him to go to his room. He kept trying to talk, but none of what he'd said made any sense. Kakashi had finally given up and just knocked the boy unconscious again.

Itachi hadn't approved, Naruto would probably wake up feeling worse, but he'd let it slide because Sasuke had wandered in, looking vaguely concerned, telling them to keep it down.

After he'd left, Kakashi had a brain flash, telling Itachi to look through any book he had on Konoha's government, present _and_ past. Itachi had only complied because it had seemed like as good a start as any.

Kakashi himself had immediately left, saying something about having an idea.

That was the older Uchiha sibling found himself pouring through books on all of Sunday, reading up on their city's government and politics. And through all that searching and thinking and conclusion jumping, he'd realized something.

There was not even _one_ that _wasn't_ written by some government official.

All of the books were biased, he'd been expecting that, but he _hadn't_ been expecting to find the same authors on almost all of the books he'd found.

He'd looked through about one-hundred and twelve and, in a passive-interested moment, had glanced at the covers to see who had written what. He had only realized they were all written by the same group of authors after spotting three by some Yamanaka guy. Itachi had then organized the piles into authors and found that there were only nineteen of them, and only one of them had a single book to his name.

The discovery was made even more startling by the fact that the authors didn't stay on one subject. Yamanaka had written a total of eighteen of the books, three about Konoha government rankings and workings, five about Konoha _before_ the ninja outlawing, six about various Suna officials, and four about random cities scattered throughout Fire Country. The four subjects barely had any relation to each other.

The other piles in were in the same boat. All of the authors had written books about subjects that didn't have much to do with each other. And they often contradicted at least one of their own books.

Whatever the hell was going on with _that_, Itachi didn't know, but he was intelligent enough figure out what the overall meaning was.

The government was controlling what they knew.

He didn't like where that trail of thought led him, but it would be both stupid and dangerous to ignore the facts.

The oldest book in the pile was the one by the single author, so he reluctantly let that go, the next oldest was written about thirty years previous. Their current Hokage hadn't been elected until about four years ago and Orochimaru hadn't become an issue until two years ago. That could only mean that the brainwashing _hadn't_ started with Orochimaru.

As the books became newer, they started to draw on each other's ideas and some even repeated a few quotes, _without_ crediting the author it came from. They were slowly coming together and Itachi knew it would soon be at a point where there was only _one_ idea, _one_ book.

Orochimaru _wasn't_ their problem, the _whole damn government _was.

That put things into a much bigger light and, in turn, a bigger issue. If Kakashi really wanted to change things, Orochimaru and the Hokage were a good place to start, because in the pyramid of power, they were only the first obstacle.

* * *

Itachi watched emotionlessly as Kakashi paced around the kitchen. He had shared his theory with the man as soon as he had returned. The other researcher had cursed and had immediately started to think, by wearing a whole in Itachi's floor.

"You're sure?" Kakashi asked, stopping and regarding Itachi with a serious frown.

Itachi nodded. "I compared and wrote out a few things and used the net to do a little more research. The government is trying to control what we think."

Kakashi cursed again. "Orochimaru...?"

Itachi shook his head. "Is no longer a factor. In light of this discovery, I don't think he even counts as a problem anymore. He's just a man who wants power. Not remotely dangerous considering the people who _already_ have it."

"Yes, but we can't just ignore him. He was the whole reason I woke Naruto. We have to do something about him, even if he isn't much of a problem."

Itachi frowned. "Because you believe he can become an issue?"

"No, I just don't like him."

Itachi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I think he can be used as a starting point. Something small to think about and deal with before we take on the bigger names."

Kakashi nodded. "There's only one way we can take of him for good."

Itachi sighed. "Assassination."

"Yes. We have to have him out of the way, or he just might pose a threat to us later."

"I thought you said you just didn't like him."

"I was kidding."

"It's hard to tell with you sometimes."

Kakashi impatiently waved his hand, pushing the topic away. "How do we do it? We both know Orochimaru isn't an easy man to access."

Itachi brushed a stray strand of hair out of his face, thinking. Something was on the edge of his mind and he willed himself not to grasp at it. The thought would come to him in it's own time.

"Hey, is there anything to eat?" a weak voice came from the doorway.

Kakashi and Itachi both looked over, spotting Naruto leaning in the doorframe. He looked pale and exhausted, as well as slightly feverish. His eyes were still sort of glassy, but otherwise he seemed fine.

"How are you?" Kakashi immediately strode over to the teen, feeling his temperature and checking his vital signs.

Naruto offered a weak laugh. "I don't feel like I'm going die anymore, I'm just hungry."

"I can have Sasuke prepare something for you." Itachi stood and went to the intercom on the wall. He hadn't thought he'd ever need to use it, but he supposed it came in handy.

He put in a quick code on the pad and pressed the green button. He only had to wait a few seconds before Sasuke answered.

"This thing is annoying."

"How so?"

"It makes a screeching noise, like a rabbit is dying."

Itachi resisted the urge to ask how he would what that sounded like and got to the reason he was calling on his little brother.

"Can you come down to the kitchen and make Naruto something to eat?"

"He's awake?"

"Of course."

There was pause, then Sasuke sighed heavily. "Do we even have food we can make ourselves?"

"Yes, or I wouldn't be asking."

Another pause. "I have to finish my assignment, then I'm coming down."

Itachi took his finger off of the button, turning and finding Naruto sitting on a stool, his head on the island. Kakashi was next to him, looking at him with something close to concern.

"Are you sure you're feeling well?" he asked.

"Yeah," Naruto answered tiredly, "I just need something to eat and a little more rest, then I'll be fine."

"Will you be able to go to school tomorrow?" Itachi asked.

Naruto frowned, startled. "Huh?"

That was right, they hadn't told him yet. "We enrolled you into school on Friday. You have to go in order to keep up appearances with Sasuke and anyone who might run into you. It's only temporary, until we find a way to kill you."

Naruto looked even more bewildered and Kakashi shot him an annoyed glare.

"Not literally, of course. We have to fake your death somehow so that there will be a legitimate excuse as to why you're not in school _and_ you can put all of your time into helping us."

The blond still looked a little confused, but he nodded. "I heard you guys talking about killing someone, anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you can sneak past a few guards, kill a man specially trained, and get away relatively unharmed."

Silence.

"You were a ninja..." Kakashi said thoughtfully.

The thought that had been bothering Itachi a while ago now came to the forefront. "Ninja were used to do various missions for the village, ranked according to difficulty and importance, which included assassination."

Naruto looked uneasy. "I know I said I don't remember much from before Kakashi woke me up, but I get the feeling I never actually _killed_ anyone."

"Now's a good time to start desensitizing yourself. You're the only one in the world who has a chance at doing this and succeeding."

Naruto reluctantly nodded. "I'd have to train, but I _think_ I can probably do it."

"That'll have to be good enough, for now." Itachi tapped his fingers on the counter. "Kakashi, before you left, you said you had an idea. What was it?"

The man sighed. "We're not going to be able to do all of this on our own. Three people is nowhere near enough to do take down Orochimaru and the Hokage, let alone the government if your theory is correct."

"So, you're saying we need to recruit?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. We need to find people who are willing to go against the powers that be, who are willing to risk their _lives_, to make Konoha the place it once was."

Itachi thought about their separate situations and social standings. "I can find people at work. Kakashi, you can go through the city and search. Naruto, you can find people at school," he gave them a stern stare. "Don't just pick anyone who seems rebellious. Get to know people, their ideas and beliefs, their opinions. If our plans get into the wrong hands, it'll be the end of all us."

It was quiet while they thought about that, but Naruto broke it soon enough. "Will it be safe to use a bunch of teenagers? They're rebellious by nature and it'll be hard for me to find the ones who are _truly_ against the government and all."

"It'll be safe. Teens can get away with things that adults can't. As for whether they're trustworthy," Kakashi trailed off. "You're going to have to use your best judgement."

The door banged open, startling them.

Sasuke walked in, glancing impassively at the three in the room. He offered them a nod and went to the stove, pulling pans from underneath and going to the closet, pulling out a few items of food. He washed his hands and got to work preparing.

"Can you please not stare?" he asked dryly.

Itachi simply looked back at Naruto and Kakashi, who both seemed a little embarrassed. He shook his head.

"Is it a plan?" he asked, as if Sasuke wasn't there at all.

Naruto nodded and fiddled with his hands. Kakashi sighed, crossing his arms and leaning back, staring at the ceiling.

"No, but it's a start."

* * *

_Oh, wow, plot finally.  
I honestly tried to make this longer, but it wouldnt budge. Sorry 'bout that. I wanted to make the three or so months worth it but I don't think I succeeded very well.  
Con-crit appreciated (as well as praise XD) and I hope you enjoyed the chapter._

_- Slaughter_


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